Evonik launched biosurfactant products from new site in Slovakia

Evonik has launched a new biosurfactant produced from renewable feedstocks, said the company.

The rhamnolipids are produced at Evonik’s plant in Slovenska Lupca, Slovakia following a triple-digit million-euro investment in the site, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023. The biosurfactant range is made using feedstocks which are locally sourced and fully biodegradable, meeting demand for low-emission, low-impact cleaning products in the market.

As Evonik holds the IP-protected manufacturing process, this enables them to sell a unique product on the market and is a step towards shifting its Nutrition & Care life sciences business segment towards system solutions. System solutions have high growth prospects and above-average margin potential, and Evonik plans to increase the share of system solutions in its Nutrition and Care segment from 20% to more than 50% by 2030.

As MRC reported before, Evonik is investing a three-digit million-euro sum in the construction of a new production plant for bio-based and fully biodegradable rhamnolipids. The decision to build the plant follows a breakthrough in Evonik's research and development. Rhamnolipids are biosurfactants and serve as active ingredients in shower gels and detergents. Demand for environ-mentally friendly surfactants is growing rapidly worldwide.

We remind that in February, 2020, Dow and Evonik entered into an exclusive technology partnership. Together, they plan to bring a unique method for directly synthesizing propylene glycol (PG) from propylene and hydrogen peroxide to market maturity.

Evonik is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. The company is active in more than 100 countries around the world and generated sales of EUR12.2 billion and an operating profit (adjusted EBITDA) of EUR1.91 billion in 2020. Evonik goes far beyond chemistry to create innovative, profitable and sustainable solutions for customers. About 33,000 employees work together for a common purpose: to improve life today and tomorrow.
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With Tepex, LANXESS is one of the leading manufacturers of fiber-reinforced thermoplastic composites for lightweight and highly mechanically resilient structural components, said the company.

The specialty chemicals company offers a composite range called Tepex flowcore for numerous variations of the compression molding process. This product line has now been expanded and optimized.

The new composites are designed as alternatives to thermoset sheet molding compounds (SMCs). Offering similar mechanical performance, they are much more ductile and, as thermoplastic systems, much easier to recycle than SMCs. They are easy to process because they are molded and shaped by thermal means only.

“We are targeting Tepex flowcore primarily at large underbody paneling components and load compartment wells for cars, but also at components such as large casings and battery covers,” says Sabrina Anders, project manager for Tepex flowcore at LANXESS High Performance Materials business unit.

Tepex flowcore has already proved its worth in series production, such as in a bumper beam for a mid-size sedan from a Japanese car manufacturer.

As per MRC, LANXESS said it was suspending its business activities in Russia due to the war in Ukraine. Thus, the company had “suspended business activities with Russian customers as far as contractually possible until further notice” and had suspended all investments in Russia. Its sales in Russia and Ukraine made up less than 1% of its global sales, it said. Sanctions imposed by Western countries on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine have fuelled a global surge in wholesale power and gas prices, which chemical companies are attempting to offset by passing the increases on to customers.

As MRC reported before, in October 2021, specialty chemicals company LANXESS and energy company bp entered into a strategic partnership for the use of sustainable raw materials in high-tech plastics production. bp will supply sustainably produced cyclohexane to the LANXESS’ production site in Antwerp, Belgium, starting in the fourth quarter of 2021. The sustainable origin of the raw materials is certified according to ISCC Plus rules (“International Sustainability and Carbon Certification”). With this partnership, both companies, which already have a long-standing business relationship, want to significantly advance the production of sustainable plastics.

LANXESS is a leading specialty chemicals company with about 19,200 employees in 25 countries. The company is currently represented at 74 production sites worldwide. The core business of Lanxess is the development, manufacturing and marketing of chemical intermediates, additives, specialty chemicals and plastics. Through Arlanxeo, the joint venture with Saudi Aramco, Lanxess is also a leading supplier of synthetic rubber.
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Italian oil and gas company Eni and Air Liquide have entered into a collaboration agreement aimed at assessing decarbonization solutions in the Mediterranean region of Europe, focusing on hard-to-abate industrial sectors, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

The two companies join forces to enable CO2 capture, aggregation, transport and permanent storage.

CCS represents one of the fundamental tools in the decarbonization process, especially for the most carbon-intensive industrial sectors, and will play a key role in achieving the important emission reduction targets set at European level as part of the Green Deal.

Within the framework of the agreement, Eni and Air Liquide will collaborate to identify clusters of hard-to-abate industries in this geographic area and will define the best possible configuration to develop a large-scale CCS program.

In particular, Air Liquide will develop competitive CO2 abatement solutions, leveraging on its ongoing CCS initiatives in Northern Europe and on its innovative proprietary technology Cryocap able to capture up to 95% of CO2 emissions from industrial facilities.

Eni, leveraging on its experience in gas fields exploitation and management, will identify the most suitable permanent CO2 storage locations in the Mediterranean sea.

As MRC reported previously, Eni said on Friday it was not using oil of Russian origin in operations related to its 20% share in the Bayernoil refinery in the Germany state of Bavaria.

We remind that Eni is evaluating conversion of its Livorno refinery in northwest Italy into a biorefinery, as part of the Italian company's wider strategy to make its activities more environmentally sustainable. Eni has already converted two of its Italian refineries and is looking to almost double its biorefining capacity to around 2 million mt/year by 2024, and expand this to at least five times by 2050, as part of its pledge to achieve complete carbon neutrality by 2050.

Ethylene and propylene are the main feedstocks for the production of polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), respectively.

According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 2,487,450 tonnes in 2021, up by 13% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market totalled 1,494.280 tonnes, up by 21% year on year. Deliveries of homopolymer PP and PP block copolymers increased, whreas shipments of PP random copolymers decreased significantly.

Eni, abbreviation of Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, in full Eni SpA, Italian energy company operating primarily in petroleum, natural gas, and petrochemicals. Established in 1953, it is one of Europe's largest oil companies in terms of sales.
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Songwon is nearing completion of its electronic chemicals plant in its Maeam facilities in Ulsan, said the company.

Financial or capacity details were not disclosed. The company said construction is to be finished by the end of March and the plant should start immediately thereafter.

With the plant, Songwon is aiming to tap into the semiconductor industry, which has been suffering a global shortage of materials. “Songwon will be well-positioned to respond to the rapidly increasing demand for semiconductors,” it said.

“It will also be able to meet the subsequent rise in the demand for high-end specialty chemicals and raw materials for IT industries (incl. semiconductors) as well as display materials."

As per MRC, in October 2021, Gazprom Neftekhim Salavat LLC (GNS) signed an agreement for the development of a basic design and a license agreement for the use of Songwon Industrial technology. The contract makes it possible to organize the production of superabsorbent polymers (SAP) based on acrylic acid at the enterprise. The new production will be a continuation of the chain of processing of acrylates into superabsorbent polymers. In the manufacture of products will be used its own raw materials - butanol and propylene.

Songwon Industrial Co., Ltd. - the second in the world in terms of production of polymer stabilizers. The company's product range includes polymer stabilizers, alkylphenols and alkylcresols, PVC stabilizers, plasticizers, organotin, polyurethanes, flocculants. The company's headquarters is located in Ulsan, Korea.
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Shell Plc’s trading unit Shell Western Supply and Trading, along with US refiners Valero Energy and Marathon Petroleum, are rushing to secure Ecuadorian barrels after America banned imports of Russian crude, according to Hydrocarbonprocessing.

Ecuador’s state oil company EP Petroecuador held back-to-back meetings this week in Louisiana with several refiners and trading houses, according to Petroecuador’s oil trading manager, Pablo Noboa.

Fuelmakers and trading companies are seeking to plug a supply gap in an already tight market, sparking a hunt to replace the Russian barrels. Oil prices have been swinging wildly on mounting concerns over the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Brent futures are trading at about USD100 after surging to a 14-year high earlier this month. The ban on Russian oil includes straight-run fuel oil, a feedstock used to replace heavy crude that’s similar to what Ecuador produces.

“US refiners and traders are eager to sign mid-and long-term supply contracts after Russia invaded Ukraine,” Noboa said in an interview in New Orleans. “When oil in the global market is scarce, it makes sense to try to secure a steady supply.”

The prospect of US restrictions on Russian crude had refiners in Texas asking suppliers in Mexico and Brazil about long-term availability and prices even before the invasion of Ukraine. Brazil, which typically supplies fuel oil to Singapore and Europe, sold one cargo to the US Gulf Coast in February.

Marathon, the largest US fuelmaker, is seeking 11 to 22 cargoes of Ecuadorian heavy sour oil over 11 months, starting as soon as June, Noboa said. Jamaica’s state-owned oil company Petrojam Ltd is looking for a similar arrangement for 11 cargoes and Shell Western is seeking to extend an existing 3-year supply contract that expires in December 2023. Marathon and Valero didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment.

Shell is willing to pay more for the oil as long as it can load from Ecuador’s OCP terminal that handles larger vessels, he said. Valero is also seeking to secure a supply contract. Shell declined to comment.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, Petrojam has been reaching out to countries including Guyana and Argentina, to secure additional supplies of crude oil and fuels. It’s talking to Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. about supplying 4 MM bbl of crude annually, and is “currently in dialogue with Petroecuador and Ecopetrol in Colombia to establish term supply agreements,” General Manager Winston Watson said in a statement.

Ecuador, a former OPEC member, plans to boost oil production amid rising crude prices. “It’s now or never, we won’t have this window of opportunity of good prices” again, Petroecuador chief Italo Cedeno said late Tuesday in an online presentation. With the help of the private sector, the company plans to increase production by more than half in four years, to 763,000 bpd.

As MRC wrote before, Shell faces writedowns on USD400 MM in Russian downstream assets, it said, having announced USD3 B worth of other projects previously. The oil major announced on Feb. 28 that it would quit its ventures in Russia with Gazprom and related entities including the flagship Sakhalin 2 LNG plant and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project.

We remind that Shell Chemicals expects its new petrochemical complex in southwest Pennsylvania to come online by the end of 2022, Royal Dutch Shell CFO Jessica Uhl said February 3, during the company's Q4 2021 earnings call.

Royal Dutch Shell plc is an Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the biggest company in the world in terms of revenue and one of the six oil and gas "supermajors". Shell is vertically integrated and is active in every area of the oil and gas industry, including exploration and production, refining, distribution and marketing, petrochemicals, power generation and trading.
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